Persuasion and psychic dynamism in a multidisciplinary and historical perspective

Abstract

We intend to provide evidence, in a multidisciplinary and historical perspective, the process of persuasion by which the recipient was transformed from an active and critical individual into a passive product consumer. In the history of western culture, there are two opposing conceptions regarding the process of persuasion. On the one side, it is understood that persuasion should offer an experience to the individual, who is conceived as an active and intentional receiver of the stimuli from the external world, a living and spiritual body (capable of judging and making decisions). On the other side, persuasion is considered an experience induction, in which the individual is considered a mere passive receptor of external stimuli, a body determined by reaction mechanisms.